Larry David returned to host Saturday Night Live this week. And he did not hesitate to address the elephant that has consumed Hollywood over these past several weeks.
“You know, a lot of sexual harassment stuff in the news of late,” the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator said about halfway through his monologue. “And I couldn’t help but notice a very disturbing pattern emerging, which is that many of the predators—not all, but many of them—are Jews."
“And I have three words to say to that,” David continued. “Oy vey izmir” (translation: “woe is me”). He explained that he doesn’t like it “when Jews are in the headlines for notorious reasons,” adding, “I want Einstein discovers the theory of relativity. Salk cures Polio. What I don’t want: Weinstein took it out.”
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Unlike Weinstein, David said he strives to be a “good Jewish representative.”
“When people see me,” he said, “I want them to say, ‘Oh, there goes a fine Jew for you. Margaret, come here and say hello to this fellow. I want you to meet a wonderful Jew. Nothing stereotypical about him, except for the self-deprecation and the irritable bowel syndrome, you could never tell in a million years!’”
Then, David pushed the squirm-inducing nature of his material even more, wondering aloud if he still would have checked out women during the Holocaust had he been sent to a concentration camp.
“I think I would,” he said, imagining the scenario. “Of course, the problem is, there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp. ‘How’s it going? They treating you OK? You know, if we ever get out of here, I’d love to take you out for some latkes. Do you like latkes? What? What did I say? Is it me or the whole thing? It’s because I’m bald, isn’t it?”
